This week on the very special episodes podcast, we've got a very special deep dive.

This is the subject that I, like bring up in conversation that has just, like, warped my brain in a way that has altered my physical chemistry permanently. I'm talking, of course, about the Spider man, turn off the dark musical.

Listen to very special episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Dahlia Lithwick, and I'm host of Amicus, Slate's podcast about the law and the US Supreme Court. We are shifting into high gear, coming at you weekly with the context you need to understand the rapidly changing legal landscape, the many trials of Donald J. Trump, judicial ethics, arguments and opinions. At SCOTUS, we are tackling the big legal news with clarity and insight. Every single week. New amicus episodes every Saturday wherever you listen.

You're listening to Comedy Central from the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central. It's America's only source for news. This is the daily show with your hosts, Desi Lydick and Michael Costa. Michael Costa, we have a great show for you tonight. We're going to talk about how Kate Middleton's picture is worth 1000 news articles and Lara Trump and Jesus take the wheel at the RNC and congress gets to the bottom of whether Biden is old. But first. But first, Desi, I think we should take a moment to acknowledge equal payday because women don't earn enough. And personally, I'm sick of.

Oh, that's so nice, Michael.

In fact, in the spirit of transparency, I'd like us to both say our salaries out loud right now.

Oh, we don't really need to do that.

I'm an ally. I want to bring light to an issue affecting all women.

Well, there might not be a pay gap for every woman. Some women might be making more than men. So I think we can just move $65 a week.

$65 a week? That's what I make. Now go ahead and say yours. You don't have to be embarrassed.

You're right. I make less than that, Michael.

This country disgusts me.

Well, now that we have that out of the way, there's a lot of election news today. So let's get into it with another installment of indecision 2024. Let's kick things off with the big campaign news. For years now, Donald Trump has gradually been taking over the Republican Party. First he got Ted Cruz's balls. Then he took Mitch McConnell's spine. And now he's finally reached the butthole of the party. The Republican National Committee, and he's giving it a thorough cleansing.

Dozens of staffers getting laid off just days after Donald Trump's handpicked team took over the organization. Top officials in communications, the political department, the data team, all getting the ax. Lara Trump, the former president's daughter in law, is now the committee's co chair.

In her speech nominating Lara Trump, RNC committeewoman Beth Block argued that it doesn't matter if Lara Trump lacks traditional qualifications.

In a world where qualifications are often measured by titles and years of experience, we are reminded of a powerful truth. God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called. Laura Trump is the embodiment of this truth.

This is the most mean girl introduction I have ever heard. A lot of people think that you should be qualified to have a job, but here's Lara Trump anyway, take it up with God. But I guess why God would. But I get why God would bless Donald Trump appointing his daughter in law. I mean, Jesus was the original Nepo baby. Forget a job, he started an entire religion based, um. Do you know who my father is? There is some truth to it. Lara is completely unqualified. Of course, that's never stopped her before.

And I'll keep this world from dragging me down gonna stand my ground and I won't back down it, you know.

Sometimes it's okay to back down.

Oh, my God. I mean, I blame God for that performance, although I think she proved that there isn't one. All right, let's move on to the man Lara Trump and her friend God will be trying to defeat in November, Joe Biden. Biden's age and mental fitness has been a central part of the campaign, which tends to happen when you're 154 years old. And it's back in the news today.

Special counsel Robert her was at a hearing on Capitol Hill today defending his report on President Biden's handling of classified documents from last month, where her described Biden as a, quote, sympathetic, well meaning elderly man with a poor memory.

My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president's memory was necessary and accurate and fair. In her's report, where he declined to prosecute the president, he writes, Biden did not remember, even within several years, when.

His son Beau died.

That drew a fiery denial from the.

Hmm, heard that. That's right. This special counsel got a lot of heat for calling attention to Biden's memory problems. And look, I'm not going to sit here and say Biden's brain is perfect, but can we just be honest here, remembering when things happened is hard. I mean, I can't remember dates from years ago. And I'm a young, fit, chiseled, patient, optimistic, Sudoku doing, handsome man.

Kind of pegged you as more of a word search guy. But no, it's true. I have a really hard time even remembering my passwords.

I can remember my kids'names or if.

I have kids, I can never remember my husband's birthday.

I can't remember my own birthday.

Husser, are you.

Was. I was going to make an appointment with my doctor, but I forgot how to use the phone. But look, the point is this. Robert heard testified about his report today, and the Democrats took the opportunity to challenge his portrayal of Biden's memory.

I now want to turn you to the transcript. And day one, page 47, you said to President Biden, you have appear to have a photographic understanding and recall of the house. Did you say that to President Biden? Those words do appear on page 47 of the transcript. Photographic is what you said. Is that right? That word does appear on page 47 of the transcript. Never appeared in your report, though. Is that correct? The word photographic, that does not appear in my report.

Yeah, that's got to hurt. See what I did there? Because his name is her, I turned a bit of a word play.

Yeah, no, I think we all get.

It, but it's true. There was lots from Biden's five hour deposition that didn't make it into the special counsel report. And let me tell you, there's a lot of other important stuff in there.

Yeah. Unfortunately, there isn't any footage from the deposition, but luckily, both Michael and I are trained thespians.

That's right. So tonight we present selected readings from the Biden deposition transcript. These are all actual quotes from President Joe Biden's deposition on handing classified documents.

You know, I went to Mongolia. And great pictures. I unfortunately embarrassed the hell out of the leader of Mongolia.

I'd sit with my national security team and say, we should follow up on this, find out more about whether or not who killed you know, and find out.

You left everything in place. I just hope you didn't find any risque pictures of my wife in a bathing suit. Which you probably did. She's beautiful.

I just warn you all, never make one great eulogy, because you get asked to do everybody's eulogy.

By the way, there's a restroom right behind us.

I get to drive all these electric vehicles I have. Damn, they're quick. You step your foot on the accelerator all the way down until it gets to about six, seven grand. Then all of a sudden, it will say, launch. All you do is take your foot off the brake.

What are you doing?

I'm making a car sound. It says, makes car sound.

Yeah, but that's not a car sound. You're just saying the word vroom.

Your car's a piece of shit, Desi. Okay, don't give me performance notes. You didn't even get into Juilliard.

Oh, like you did?

I told you I was on the waitlist of the waitlist. Look, this is over. This is over.

You know what? You are such a prima donna. This is exactly why I make more money than you look.

But you know what? When we come back, we'll cover the other big story of the day. So don't go away.

That's not fair.

I was trying to set you up.

This week on the very special episodes podcast, we've got a very special deep dive.

This is the subject that I, like bring up in conversation that has just, like, warped my brain in a way that has altered my physical chemistry permanently. I'm talking, of course, about the Spider man turn off the dark musical.

Listen to very special episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Dahli Lithwick, and I'm host of Amicus, Slate's podcast about the law and the US Supreme Court. We are shifting into high gear, coming at you weekly with the context you need to understand the rapidly changing legal landscape, the many trials of Donald J. Trump, judicial ethics arguments and opinions. At SCOTUS, we are tackling the big legal news with clarity and insight every single week. New amicus episodes every Saturday wherever you listen.

Welcome back to the Daily show. Let's turn to some major news out of Great Britain, where the royal family has photoshopped their way into a brand new scandal.

Now to a royal photo scandal that has sparked controversy and conspiracies.

The controversy started innocently enough, a family photo of the Princess of Wales and the smiling children to mark Mother's Day here in Britain. But then came the kill order from several global news agencies.

At closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image.

There's, like, little misalignments, right?

A sleeve that didn't line up with Charlote's wrist. A skewered zipper on Kate's jacket and her blurred hand.

There's a print on the top corner of Prince louis'sweater there, where the pattern doesn't line up.

How her hair abruptly ends on her right shoulder.

Princess Charlote's hand isn't in the right spot.

Yeah. You know, you didn't need to do all that forensic analysis. You know how I know that's fake? There's three kids smiling at the same time. As a parent, I know that's impossible. Also, it should be noted I didn't even know or care about Kate Middleton's leave of absence. But then you release a photo so edited, they have to issue a kill order. Well, now I'm all in. All right. And the palace better have a good explanation for this.

Hensington palace posting this explanation. Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion.

I'm calling bullshit that Kate was the one who edited the picture. This is the royal family. They don't do anything themselves. They don't even pick their own noses. They have butlers for that. You think she's doing her own photoshopping? The only thing they know how to do without help is adultery.

Yeah, unfortunately, this is only going to fuel baseless speculation about why Kate Middleton was hardly seen in months. And we don't want to get into all these rumors, like, is she getting a BBl? Is she divorcing William? Is she gone girling him?

Oh, my God. Do you think she's gone girling him?

My TikTok was saying so.

TikTok is always right.

I think so.

Look, we can't just sit here and talk about Kate Middleton all night.

You're absolutely right.

For more on Kate Middleton, let's go live to the Daily Show's senior royal watcher, Grace Coolenschmidt. Grace, what's going on in Buckingham palace?

Well, Desi and Desi's friend, the palace is in chaos. They're eating beans on toast for breakfast. They're driving on the wrong side of the road. There's flying nannies everywhere. It's a mess.

Okay, well, I think all that stuff is normal there. But has the royal family explained why they released a Photoshop picture?

Yes, the royals are taking full responsibility for this breach of trust by completely blaming the whole thing on Princess Kate. Mistakes were made all around by her and her very real graphic design hobby. But the good news is she's doing fine. And the palace just released a new photo that was taken this morning. See? Everything is normal. She looks great.

Grace, this is obviously manipulated. She's in front of the twin Towers.

Yes, but you have to remember, 911 didn't happen in England. Wait, you're right. I'm getting breaking news. The royals have admitted this photo has been edited they're saying, quote, on behalf of the entire royal family, this is Kate's fault. Wow, that was really insensitive of her guys.

Grace, why can't they just release an unedited photo of the family so we know everything is fine?

You must be some sort of fortune teller, sir, because I'm now hearing they have a new photo of the family together. Yeah. Now that is one happy family.

No, Grace. Grace, what are you talking about? Queen Elizabeth is dead. How was she even in that photo?

Yeah, and the kids all have Al Pacino's face on them.

And just to confirm, we are sure none of her kids are Al Pacino.

We're sure. Yes, we're sure.

Okay.

That confirms it. It's a. Okay. The royals just released a statement saying Kate made that one up, too, and they attached a list of things that are also Kate's fault. Okay, colonization, the whole prince Andrew thing. COVID. And you know when you try to put a USB in, but you realize it's the wrong way, so you got to turn it around, but then somehow, it's still the wrong way? That's also Kate.

Can the royal family not just be honest with what's happening instead of trying to blame Kate for every PR?

Well, the good news is they don't have to, because they just found the real photo of Kate. That should put all these questions to rest.

Yeah, see?

She's fine. Would a woman being silenced by a repressive dynasty be able to dunk like that? Two points for the princess.

Yeah, something still seems off.

That's what I thought, too. But on the other hand, she says she's doing great.

That is true. Thank you, Grace. Grace. Colin Schmidt, everyone.

This week on the very special episodes podcast, we've got a very special deep dive.

This is the subject that I, like bring up in conversation that has just, like, warped my brain in a way that has altered my physical chemistry permanently. I'm talking, of course, about the Spider man, turn off the dark musical.

Listen to very special episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Dahlia Lithwick, and I'm host of Amicus, Slate's podcast about the law and the US Supreme Court. We are shifting into high gear, coming at you weekly with the context you need to understand the rapidly changing legal landscape, the many trials of Donald J. Trump, judicial ethics, arguments and opinions. At SCOTUS, we are tackling the big legal news with clarity and insight. Every single week, new amicus episodes every Saturday. Wherever you listen.

Back to Danny.

Award winning journalist, podcast host, and author whose new book is called selling the Dream. The billion dollar industry bankrupting Americans. Please welcome Jane Marie. She wrote a book. Yes, you did. And I tore right through it. It's a great read. It's fascinating.

Thank you. It came out today, so I haven't heard any feedback. I don't know what anyone thinks of it.

Is this the first feedback that you're getting?

Much, yeah. Outside of the people that helped me write it.

Well, it's a great book. We'll tell you how much we enjoyed it. This world is fascinating. You go deep into the world of MLMs.

Yes.

And people call them by many different names.

MLMs, network marketing, direct marketing, direct sales, pyramid scheme. I can't call them that.

You can't?

No.

From a legal perspective, you can't call them that. But right here on the COVID I.

Got a lot of help. I got a lot of help with the COVID art.

Yes. What exactly is an MLM?

So, a multi level marketing company is a business that's shaped like this slightly.

But we can't call it a pyramid.

Yeah. There's a couple of people at the top. Then they have the upline, the top sellers, who are supposed to recruit, like, usually five people each. And then they're supposed to recruit five people. And they're supposed to recruit five people infinitely. And the way the money flows is that each person who signs up pays, like, a fee at the beginning to sign up, or sometimes they have to pay for some products and stuff, but they're paying those fees in, and then they fail pretty quickly, usually. And then more people sign up. So that's where the money comes from. And isn't it something like 99.99% make no money or lose money. Only 1% make a dollar, even.

We laughed when you said infinity. Infinitely. Because you can't keep doing that.

13 levels, and you surpass a population of the earth.

Right.

Totally impossible.

MLMs specifically prey on women. These Tupperware parties, the sex toy parties.

And they're so fun, and we get to hang out with our friends.

Wait. I want to make this about me for a second, but sorry.

Please.

Why not now? Why not men? I would love to go to a nose trimmer party or a beef jerky.

There are, first of all, Mlms for you. Okay. Yes. It's crypto or there's telecom companies. There are, like, lots of dude MLMs, but 75% of people involved are women. And it's because the companies go after people who have some sort of economic precarity or trouble moving up the ranks to. Here's the thing. There's the pay gap we're fighting against. If someone called you today and was like, you could make another $1,000 a week just sitting in your house and talking to your girlfriends and selling makeup, and if that was true, I would be doing that.

Where do I sign?

Yeah, where do I sign? Let me do it. So we all make less than men. We all take care of the home. We're all homemakers. We take care of the children. We don't have, especially at the age, middle age. We don't have that kind of movement in the economy that other people get. And it's not just women, because it's now becoming immigrants or people. Anyone who is a population that has hard time getting really good, solid employment, which is everybody right now.

I also feel like they sucker women in with this promise of, you can achieve independence, you can be your own girl boss, and that's alluring.

Girl boss? Yeah. I'm 46 years old. When I hear girl boss, I'm just like, boss, babes and fempire. But it's true. My great grandma did Avon, and it did help her feel like some agency in her life because she didn't have a career. She got pregnant at, like, 14 and had a bunch of kids and really didn't have a job outside of that. And it felt good to get on stage or get a pin or get, like, a fancy jacket and be around people and be lauded. So I do think those things are really valuable, and I think the parties are really fun. They're actually super fun. I don't know. I did one in my house when I was, like, 20. It was like a lingerie party, and everyone came out and modeled their tell me more boudoir set. Go on.

You touched on a little bit, but besides just that, you can make $1,000 a week. There are some psychological components that they recruit with.

Yes.

And to me, that's almost more powerful. Tell me a little bit about what they do.

So the recruitment is just things that appeal to all of us. Like, you can have time and money and freedom, and you don't have to have any qualifications, and the world is yours. And we have a secret. We have a secret that they don't want you to know. So then they rely on these logical fallacies that we all kind of rely on in our lives. And one of them is honoring sunk costs. Like when you buy a lemon for a car and you get it worked on and worked on and worked on. There comes a point where you have to be like, I can't fix this car. I have to get rid of this car.

This is me at the blackjack table.

Okay? That's exactly right.

$1,000.

You might as well. What am I going to do, walk away now? No, I'm going to.

Time and energy.

You got to stick all this time. And how much time does it take for you to lose $1,000? I bet in, like, small one dollars all night.

It's like the whole free. I get a free martini, but I've lost $2,000 table.

Right.

And then you've lost $2,000. And I'm feeling the anxiety of even you just saying that. Where I'm like, you can't walk away at 2000. So that's what they rely on, is that they know we're all going to do that. And there's a bunch more like the idea that it's a truth, that we feel losses much more than gains. We feel them in our bodies as trauma. And a gain is like, okay, great. But a loss is like. And so we do everything we can to not realize the loss, to not experience the loss. So we stick with a plan that's not working for a really long there.

Can the government regulate this? Help us? I mean, isn't this what the Federal Trade commission is meant to do?

Is there legislation that can be passed to correct this?

Things are being worked on. But I will say, just to give the FTC a bit of a break, their purview is so enormous. They are tiny. First of all, they're like the size of the smallest MLM in terms of the people that are there and the money they get to use. They're tiny. And their job is. And listen to that. Especially after the pandemic and stuff, their job is false. Product claims, credit card fraud, phishing, spam, every kind of fraud. Your grandma getting taken by somebody that she's never met over the phone. And when you put that up against MLMs, where the people who are signed up are excited about it, it's hard to put that first, although this is such a bigger problem than those things in numbers. So they have a tough task, and I don't blame them. They're doing the best they can.

Because technically, MLMs are legal.

I believe they are not, but they exist because I use this comparison all the time. That's like being like, I'm a murderer because I'm in jail, and then I'm not a murderer because I'm not in jail, right? That doesn't make any sense.

But those MLMs will be illegal, but they aren't treated as such. So what can be done?

Can you say if the FTC is not stepping in?

No.

What can smart american people do to lured in?

Buy my book?

You do need five other people to buy the book also. But for real, what's our defense?

It really is talking about it. That's the only thing we can do because the government doesn't have the capacity. And that's understandable because there are so many. I talked to the FTC recently, and one of the women I was talking to was like, it's a very target rich environment right now. And I thought she meant because I was asking her, why don't we go after these companies? It's a target rich environment. I thought she meant there's too many MLMs and no, she was talking about us. She was like, this is the perfect environment for these companies to come after you. We are all desperate. We're all wanting to realize the american dream and believe this is a meritocracy and believe this is a place where you work hard and you get rewarded for it and all that, whatever.

So talk about it and be aware of it.

Talk about it. Tell your friends they're fine pitching you some garbage hair product or whatever. You should be fine being like, you know what? This is not cool. And I think the tide's turning.

Thank you very much for talking with us. Selling the dream is available now. Jane Marie, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back after.

This week on the very special episodes podcast, we've got a very special deep dive.

This is the subject that I like bring up in conversation that has just, like, warped my brain in a way that has altered my physical chemistry permanently. I'm talking, of course, about the Spider man turn off the dark musical.

Listen to very special episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Dahlia Lithwick, and I'm host of Amicus, Slate's podcast about the law and the US Supreme Court. We are shifting into high gear, coming at you weekly with the context you need to understand the rapidly changing legal landscape, the many trials of Donald J. Trump, judicial ethics arguments and opinions. At SCOTUS, we are tackling the big legal news with clarity and insight every single week. New amicus episodes every Saturday, wherever you listen.

That's our show for tonight.

Now here it.

You know, we can.

Go through different stuff that I say that you say, because I still want to know why you came after me as much as you did. But I'm a dick. Probably because it was easy. Explore more shows from the Daily show podcast universe by searching the Daily show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily show weeknights at 1110 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount. Plus, this has been a comedy central podcast.

This week on the very special episodes podcast, we've got a very special deep dive.

This is the subject that I bring up in conversation that has just, like, warped my brain in a way that has altered my physical chemistry permanently. I'm talking, of course, about the Spider man, turn off the dark musical.

Listen to very special episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Dahlia Lithwick, and I'm host of Amicus, Slate's podcast about the law and the US Supreme Court. We are shifting into high gear, coming at you weekly with the context you need to understand the rapidly changing legal landscape, the many trials of Donald J. Trump, judicial ethics, arguments and opinions. At SCOTUS, we are tackling the big legal news with clarity and site every single week, new amicus episodes every Saturday, wherever you listen.